Automobile C-type Chute Side-bar Pedal And Production Processes Of The Same

Abstract

The present invention provides an automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal comprising a load-bearing member and an anti-slide member mounted onto an upper surface of the load-bearing member, wherein a cross section of the load-bearing member is a downwardly opened C-type structure which is formed into a curved face structure integrally, and two inner sides of the load-bearing member are provided with a slide rail which is an upwardly opened C-type chute structure; further comprising a slide block located within the load-bearing member and provided with a recess which may slide along the slide rail, wherein a lower end of the slide block is provided with a mounting member connected with a car; and two end portions of the load-bearing member are provided with a sealing structure fixed from the inner side of the load-bearing member. Further, a production processes of the automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal is provided.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application claims priority to Chinese Application No. 201410134377.6 filed Apr. 3, 2014 and entitled "Automobile C-Type Chute Side-Bar Pedal and Production Processes of the Same", the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to automobile accessory part technologies, and more particularly to an automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal and production processes of the same.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] A side bar pedal as an automobile accessory part provides stepping assistance when people get on or off. With the continuous development of the automobile industry, the side bar pedal as an automobile accessory part also demands to continuously develop new technologies to meet the needs of the market.

[0004] Now, the side bar pedal more commonly used in the market is a stainless steel tube type, the production processes of which are as follows: [0005] 1) a metal band being used as a stainless steel material of the load-bearing member, which is formed into a tubular shape by a tube making machine; [0006] 2) welding a slot formed in the tubular body, and grinding a welding line; [0007] 3) performing a first time cutting to the steel tube; [0008] 4) performing a second time cutting to the steel tube; [0009] 5) manual processing mounting holes and screw holes of the connecting piece; [0010] 6) welding two end sealings of the steel tube and grinding the welding line; [0011] 7) inspecting quality; [0012] 8) manual polishing (polished by sand.fwdarw.polished by linen.fwdarw.polished by cloth wheel); [0013] 9) inspecting polishing quality; [0014] 10) mounting a connecting rivet nut; [0015] 11) mounting a plastic anti-slide plate; and [0016] 12) packaging a finished product.

[0017] However, such processes may have the following problems: [0018] 1) the exhaust gas and the waste water produced during the processes of profiling, welding and grinding welding line pollute the environment seriously;

[0019] 2) since each type of the side bar pedals is dedicated for only one vehicle model which results in a poor versatility, the side bar pedal models are various which results in high production management, storage and transportation costs, and is also easy to cause product overstocking; [0020] 3) a welding process is employed for the slot of the tube and the sealings at two ends of the stainless steel tube, and the welding portion needs to be polished smoothly before welding, thus increasing the processing and time costs; [0021] 4) since the tubular load-bearing member is difficult to be mechanical-automatically polished and punched during the production processes, the polishing is manually operated and the holes requires to be manually drilled, these processes require a worker to have a high proficiency, otherwise a poorer quality, a high defective rate, a long processing time will happen, and a demand for additional manual inspection will increase the cost; [0022] 5) the whole production process has many steps leading to a long production cycle and requires many production apparatuses resulting in a large production area; [0023] 6) it is necessary to cut the material of a larger size gradually into ones of a smaller size because of the need to produce a variety of specifications of products, which results in a waste of material; and [0024] 7) the load-bearing capacity of the tubular structure of the load-bearing member is poorer, which is easily deformed and leads to a production difficulty during the production process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0025] The present invention provides an automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal which can be adapted to a variety of different types of cars to enable the side-bar pedal to have versatility and extremely high anti-pressure ability.

[0026] The present invention also provides an automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal and the production processes of the same to reduce the side bar pedal production management, storage and transportation costs, avoid problems like material mixing etc., shorten the production cycle, reduce pollution and improve the product quality.

[0027] To this end, the present invention employs the following technical solutions: [0028] an automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal includes a load-bearing member and an anti-slide member mounted onto an upper surface of the load-bearing member; [0029] the cross section of the load-bearing member is a downwardly opened C-type structure which is formed into a curved face structure integrally, and two inner sides of the load-bearing member are provided with a slide rail which is an upwardly opened C-type chute structure; [0030] the automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal further includes a slide block located within the load-bearing member and provided with a recess which may slide along the slide rail, a lower end of which is provided with a mounting member connected with a car; and two end portions of the load-bearing member are provided with a sealing structure fixed from the inner side of the load-bearing member.

[0031] The anti-slide member, a lower surface of which fits the upper surface of the load-bearing member, is formed of a plastic material, and is provided with a mounting post mating with mounting holes of the load-bearing member and protruding into the interior of the load-bearing member, so as to snap-fit said anti-slide member into said load-bearing member.

[0032] The upper surface of the anti-slide member is a planar structure with anti-slide pattern, wherein two sides of the cross section are respectively provided with a flap whose lower surface is closely against the upper surface of the load-bearing member and extends towards both sides respectively.

[0033] The slide block is formed of a metal or plastic material, and has a hollow and integral structure, wherein a stiffener used to support upper and lower ends is disposed on a central portion thereof; an outer surface of the slide block fits an inner surface of the load-bearing member; the slide block is provided with an vacancy avoiding trough to avoid the mounting post and the mounting part at the lower end of the slide block is a rivet nut.

[0034] The anti-slide member has two or three mounting posts in the same cross section, and the corresponding slide block has several vacancy avoiding troughs.

[0035] The slide rail and the load-bearing member both are formed of stainless steel materials and formed into an integral structure.

[0036] The sealing structure includes a connecting piece and a sealing cover; the sealing cover is fixed with the connecting piece from the inner side of the load-bearing member via a screw; the connecting piece is formed of a metal material, which fits the inner surface of the load-bearing member, and the sealing cover is formed of a plastic or metal material and is provided with a boss protruding into the interior of the load-bearing member, wherein the boss fits the inner surface of the load-bearing member.

[0037] The connecting piece is provided with two mounting portions which are fixed to the outer side of the slide rail via screws respectively.

[0038] The connecting piece is provided with two mounting portions which are fixed via screws to the inner side of the slide rail respectively, and the connecting pieces is disposed at the recess mating with the slide rail.

[0039] The production process of the automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal includes the following steps: [0040] a) performing automated-surface grinding, polishing and filming to a stainless steel band; [0041] b) cutting said stainless steel band with a shearing machine; [0042] c) processing mounting holes and screw holes of said connecting piece with a punch; [0043] d) using a bending machine to bent said stainless steel band into the final shape of said load-bearing member; [0044] e) assembling said sliding block to said load-bearing member; [0045] f) using said screw to fix said connecting piece to said load-bearing member; [0046] g) using said screw to connect said sealing cover and said connecting piece from inside of said load-bearing member; and [0047] h) removing a protective film, mounting said anti-slide member and packaging a finished product.

[0048] The present invention can be adapted to a variety of different types of cars by above structures and production processes to enable the side-bar pedal to have versatility and extremely high anti-pressure capability, reduce the side bar pedal production management, storage and transportation costs, avoid problems like materials mixing, shorten the production cycle, alleviate pollution and improve product quality.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0049] FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of the structure in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0050] FIG. 2 is a schematic bottom view of the structure of FIG. 1.

[0051] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional schematic view along A-A of FIG. 1.

[0052] FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the structure of a connection piece in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0053] FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the structure of a connection piece in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.

[0054] FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the structure of a sealing cover in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[0055] Wherein, reference numerals set forth in the Drawings include reference to the following elements:

TABLE-US-00001 1: load-bearing member 101: slide rail 2: anti-slide member 201: mounting post 202: flap 3: slide block 301: recess 302: stiffener 303: vacancy avoiding trough 304: rivet nut 4: connecting piece 401: mounting portion 5: sealing cover 501: boss

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0056] The technical scheme of the present invention will be further described by embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0057] As shown in FIGS. 1-3, the automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal includes a load-bearing member 1 and an anti-slide member 2 mounted onto the upper surface of the load-bearing member 1.

[0058] As shown in FIG. 3, the cross section of the load-bearing member 1 is a downwardly opened C-type structure which is formed into a curved face structure integrally, and two inner sides of the load-bearing member 1 are provided with a slide rail 101 which is an upwardly opened C-type chute structure.

[0059] As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal further includes a slide block 3 located within the load-bearing member 1 and provided with a recess 301 which may slide along the slide rail 101, a lower end of which is provided with a mounting member connected with a car.

[0060] As shown in FIG. 2, two end portions of the load-bearing member 1 are provided with a sealing structure fixed from the inner side of the load-bearing member 1.

[0061] The slide rail 101 has the following functions: 1) two slide blocks 3 may slide in the load-bearing member 1 along the direction of the slide rail 101 by using the mating between the recess 301 and the slide rail 101, and the distance between two slide blocks 3 can be adjusted as desired such that the side bar pedal is compatible with a variety of different mounting dimensions of the structures, thus having versatility; 2) the slide rail 101 acts as a stiffener which enables the overall structure of the side bar pedal to be firmer; 3) two sides of the load-bearing member 1 tend to open when the load-bearing member receives a downward pressure, while the slide rail 101 receives a pulling force from the slide block 3 to prevent the deformation of the load-bearing member 1 which obtains a better bearing capacity during the use of the side bar pedal. According to inspiration drawn form bionics, the load-bearing member 1 substantially has an upward arch curved structure having a good anti-pressure capacity as a tortoise shell does, so as to increase anti-pressure strength. The load-bearing member 1 molded by bending a metal steel plate integrally reduces the processes of welding, coarse grinding and polishing of the existing steel tube forming technologies, thus shortening production cycle, and reducing process steps, and further avoiding the problems of scratching the metallic appearance of the material.

[0062] The recess 301 is used to mate with the slide rail 101 of the load-bearing member 1 so as to enable the slide block 3 to move freely in the interior of the load-bearing member 1. When the mounting member is fixed to the car, the load-bearing member 1 and the sliding block 3 are also locked simultaneously while the sliding block 3 is fixed immovably.

[0063] As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, the anti-slide member 2, a lower surface of which fits the upper surface of the load-bearing member 1, is formed of a plastic material, and is provided with a mounting post 201 mating with mounting holes of the load-bearing member 1 and protruding into the interior of the load-bearing member 201, with which the anti-slide member 2 is snap-fitted into the load-bearing member 1 to achieve the function of fixation.

[0064] As shown in FIG. 3, the structure of the anti-slide member 2 fitting with the load-bearing member 1 enables the structure to be more stable. The design of the mounting post 201 allows the mounting of the anti-slide member 2 to be more convenient while has a good stability.

[0065] As shown in FIG. 3, the upper surface of the anti-slide member 2 is a planar structure with anti-slide pattern, wherein two sides of the cross section are respectively provided with a flap 202 whose lower surface is closely against the upper surface of the load-bearing member 1 and extends towards both sides respectively.

[0066] The upper surface of the horizontal plane of the anti-slide member 2 is convenient for people standing thereon when they get on and off and the anti-slide pattern thereon increases friction force, in addition, the flap 202 enables the structures of the anti-slide member 2 and the load-bearing member 1 to be more compact.

[0067] As shown in FIG. 3, the slide block 3 is formed of a metal or plastic material, and has a hollow and integral structure, wherein a stiffener 302 used to support upper and lower ends is disposed on a central portion thereof; an outer surface of the slide block 3 fits the inner surface of the load-bearing member 1; the slide block 3 is provided with an vacancy avoiding trough 303 to avoid the mounting post 201; the mounting part at the lower end of the slide block 3 is a rivet nut 304.

[0068] The hollow structure reduces the weight of the slide block 3 and the stiffener 302 allows the slide block 3 to have sufficient bearing strength to decrease the deformation when the load-bearing member 1 is subjected to a downward press force; moreover, the stiffener 302 is able to decrease the deformation of the slide block 3 caused by an external force from the pulling force of the screw. The vacancy avoiding trough 303 is designed to avoid the anti-slide member 2, so that the slide block 3 passes through the anti-slide member 2 smoothly. The design of the slide block 3 fitting with the load-bearing member 1 is able to reduce the deformation of the load-bearing member 1 caused by a force, and the structure of the sliding block 3 is the same as that of the load-bearing member 1 which substantially has an upward arch curved face with a high pressure bearing property, the structure maintains non-deformed under the press of a specific external force, thus maintaining the integrity of the slide block 3 and the stability of the whole product quality, so as to achieve the effect of protecting the car.

[0069] As shown in FIG. 3, the anti-slide member 2 has two or three mounting posts 201 in the same cross section, and the corresponding slide block 3 has several vacancy avoiding troughs 303.

[0070] The slide rail 101 and the load-bearing member 1 both are formed of stainless steel materials and formed into an integral structure.

[0071] As shown in FIG. 2, the sealing structure includes a connecting piece 4 and a sealing cover 5; the sealing cover 5 is fixed with the connecting piece 4 from the inner side of the load-bearing member 1 via a screw; wherein the connecting piece 4 is formed of a metal material and fits the inner surface of the load-bearing member 1, and the sealing cover 5 is formed of a plastic or metal material. As shown in FIG. 6, the sealing cover 5 is provided with a boss 501 protruding into the interior of the load-bearing member 1, wherein the boss 501 fits the inner surface of the load-bearing member 1.

[0072] Such sealing structure reduces the welding, grinding, polishing, etc. processes of the existing welding technologies, which reduces pollution and is easy to be assembled. The connecting piece 4 supports the load-bearing member 1 from the interior to increase the anti-pressure strength of the load-bearing member 1. The boss 501 is designed to have several fixed sealing covers 5 which are not easy to fall off and deform to roll outward.

[0073] As shown in FIG. 4, the connecting piece 4 is provided with two mounting portions 401 which are fixed to the outer side of the slide rail 101 via screws respectively.

[0074] As shown in FIG. 5, the connecting piece 4 is provided with two mounting portions 401 which are fixed via screws to the inner side of the slide rail 101 respectively, and the connecting pieces 4 is disposed at the recess mating with the slide rail 101. The mounting portions 401 are fixed to the slide rail 101 respectively so as to tense inwardly when the load-bearing member 1 is deformed under a force, which reduces the deformation of the load-bearing member 1.

[0075] The production process of the automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal includes the following steps: [0076] a) performing automated-surface grinding, polishing and filming to a stainless steel band; [0077] b) cutting said stainless steel band with a shearing machine; [0078] c) processing mounting holes and screw holes of said connecting piece with a punch; [0079] d) using a bending machine to bent said stainless steel band into the final shape of said load-bearing member 1; [0080] e) assembling said sliding block 3 to said load-bearing member 1; [0081] f) using said screw to fix said connecting piece 4 to said load-bearing member 1; [0082] g) using said screw to connect said sealing cover 5 and said connecting piece 4 from inside of said load-bearing member; and [0083] h) removing a protective film, mounting said anti-slide member 2 and packaging the finished product.

[0084] The present invention has the following advantages through the above production process: [0085] 1) since the load-bearing member is of the C-type opening structure which has no need of the processes of tube-making and sealing, the semi-automatic production can be achieved via general apparatuses such as the punch and the bending machine, thereby reducing the problems of high defective rate caused by the manual operation, decreasing machining processes and shortening the production cycle; [0086] 2) the bending machine can be adjusted as desired, namely, it can be used to produce the different types of products to reduce equipment costs; [0087] 3) since the material surface is processed by grinding, polishing and filming during the material is in a state of steel band, so the planar steel band can be machined by a general surface processing machinery which allows the surface brightness of the products to be high and uniform in a high efficiency manner, moreover, the filming process can protect the steel band surface from being scratched during the subsequent production processes. [0088] 4) the structure of a C-type opening is easy to be located and can be punched with a plurality of the holes at a time, wherein the hole sizes and the spacing between the holes are standardized; cutting sizes are unified generally to reduce management costs, and two ends of the cutting edges are smooth, which eliminates the steps of grinding and polishing after two ends being welded; [0089] 5) because of the benefits of the centralization, simplification and mechanization of production processes, dust pollution can be effectively controlled and reduced so as to ensure environment clean; [0090] 6) on the other hand, due to the versatility of the product, the product of the same size and model can be used to a variety of cars, thus significantly reducing the amount of product inventory, saving the waste materials produced during material cutting, reducing the costs of the production management and warehouse, and reducing the required fund by several times and reducing business risk.

[0091] The technical principle of the present invention is described with reference to specific embodiments. Therefore the description is aimed at explaining the principle of the present invention and should not be construed in any way as limiting the scope of the present invention. Based on the explanation hereinabove, those skilled in the art can conceive of other embodiments without creative work, all embodiments are intended to be fallen into the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal comprising a load-bearing member and an anti-slide member mounted onto an upper surface of said load-bearing member, wherein, a cross section of said load-bearing member is a downwardly opened C-type structure which is formed into a curved face structure integrally, and two inner sides of said load-bearing member are provided with slide rail which is an upwardly opened C-type chute structure; said automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal further comprises a slide block located within said load-bearing member and provided with a recess which may slide along said slide rail, wherein a lower end of which is provided with a mounting member connected with a car; and two end portions of said load-bearing member are provided with a sealing structure fixed from said inner side of said load-bearing member.

2. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 1, wherein said anti-slide member, a lower surface of which fits said upper surface of said load-bearing member, is formed of a plastic material, and is provided with a mounting post mating with mounting holes of said load-bearing member and protruding into interior of said load-bearing member, so as to snap-fit said anti-slide member into said load-bearing member.

3. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 1, wherein said upper surface of said anti-slide member is a planar structure with anti-slide pattern, wherein two sides of said cross section are respectively provided with a flap whose lower surface is closely against said upper surface of said load-bearing member and extends towards both sides respectively.

4. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 2, wherein said slide block is formed of a metal or plastic material, and has a hollow and integral structure, wherein a stiffener used to support upper and lower ends is disposed on a central portion thereof; an outer surface of said slide block fits an inner surface of said load-bearing member; said slide block is provided with an vacancy avoiding trough to avoid said mounting post and the mounting part at said lower end of said slide block is a rivet nut.

5. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 4, wherein said anti-slide member has two or three mounting posts at said same cross section, and said corresponding slide block has several vacancy avoiding troughs.

6. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 1, wherein said slide rail and said load-bearing member both are formed of stainless steel materials and into said integral structure.

7. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 1, wherein said sealing structure comprises a connecting piece and a sealing cover; said sealing cover is fixed with said connecting piece from said inner side of said load-bearing member via a screw; said connecting piece is formed of a metal material, which fits said inner surface of said load-bearing member, and said sealing cover is formed of a plastic or metal material and is provided with a boss protruding into interior of said load-bearing member, wherein said boss fits said inner surface of said load-bearing member.

8. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 7, wherein said connecting piece is provided with two mounting portions which are fixed to said outer side of said slide rail via screws respectively.

9. The automobile C-type chute side bar pedal of claim 7, wherein said connecting piece is provided with two mounting portions which are fixed via screws to said inner side of said slide rail respectively, and said connecting pieces are disposed at said recess mating with said slide rail.

10. A production process of an automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal, wherein the automobile C-type chute side bar pedal comprises: a load-bearing member and an anti-slide member mounted onto an upper surface of said load-bearing member, wherein, a cross section of said load-bearing member is a downwardly opened C-type structure which is formed into a curved face structure integrally, and two inner sides of said load-bearing member are provided with slide rail which is an upwardly opened C-type chute structure; said automobile C-type chute side-bar pedal further comprises a slide block located within said load-bearing member and provided with a recess which may slide along said slide rail, wherein a lower end of which is provided with a mounting member connected with a car; and two end portions of said load-bearing member are provided with a sealing structure fixed from said inner side of said load-bearing member, wherein the production process comprises steps of: a) performing automated-surface grinding, polishing and filming to a stainless steel band; b) cutting said stainless steel band with a shearing machine; c) processing mounting holes and screw holes of said connecting piece with a punch; d) using a bending machine to bent said stainless steel band into the final shape of said load-bearing member; e) assembling said sliding block to said load-bearing member; f) using said screw to fix said connecting piece to said load-bearing member; g) using said screw to connect said sealing cover and said connecting piece from inside of said load-bearing member; and h) removing a protective film, mounting said anti-slide member and packaging a finished product.

11. The production process of claim 10, wherein said anti-slide member, a lower surface of which fits said upper surface of said load-bearing member, is formed of a plastic material, and is provided with a mounting post mating with mounting holes of said load-bearing member and protruding into interior of said load-bearing member, so as to snap-fit said anti-slide member into said load-bearing member.

12. The production process of claim 10, wherein said upper surface of said anti-slide member is a planar structure with anti-slide pattern, wherein two sides of said cross section are respectively provided with a flap whose lower surface is closely against said upper surface of said load-bearing member and extends towards both sides respectively.

13. The production process of claim 11, wherein said slide block is formed of a metal or plastic material, and has a hollow and integral structure, wherein a stiffener used to support upper and lower ends is disposed on a central portion thereof; an outer surface of said slide block fits an inner surface of said load-bearing member; said slide block is provided with an vacancy avoiding trough to avoid said mounting post and the mounting part at said lower end of said slide block is a rivet nut.

14. The production process of claim 13, wherein said anti-slide member has two or three mounting posts at said same cross section, and said corresponding slide block has several vacancy avoiding troughs.

15. The production process of claim 10, wherein said slide rail and said load-bearing member both are formed of stainless steel materials and into said integral structure.

16. The production process of claim 10, wherein said sealing structure comprises a connecting piece and a sealing cover; said sealing cover is fixed with said connecting piece from said inner side of said load-bearing member via a screw; said connecting piece is formed of a metal material, which fits said inner surface of said load-bearing member, and said sealing cover is formed of a plastic or metal material and is provided with a boss protruding into interior of said load-bearing member, wherein said boss fits said inner surface of said load-bearing member.

17. The production process of claim 16, wherein said connecting piece is provided with two mounting portions which are fixed to said outer side of said slide rail via screws respectively.

18. The production process of claim 16, wherein said connecting piece is provided with two mounting portions which are fixed via screws to said inner side of said slide rail respectively, and said connecting pieces are disposed at said recess mating with said slide rail.